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tahnanI've been on a rather serious losing streak in Scrabble lately; I'd lost five in a row, and while I'd won a few before that, I've been watching my rating (on the ISC; not an official NSA rating by any means) slowly slide downward.
The game I just played was astonishing.
(Tiles I played are in blue; my opponent's are in red.) Some things worth noting:
Definitely the highest-net-scoring game I've yet played. And a pleasant way to turn around a streak whose lowlights included having the word CAZIQUE played on me as a bingo (Cazique, your nom was much cooler before it scored points against me)--a game I would have won if I had used my blank as an S to make CAZIQUES when playing on the triple, and not as a C to make CHIDE while playing it on another triple; and a game lost by two points in spite of having the two highest-scoring plays in the game (SIXTY on the triple for 47; MOSQUE, with the Q on a triple letter and the O attached to the front of ROTUND, for 44).
Perhaps I'm playing too much Scrabble. Well, at least it's an intellectual distraction.
The game I just played was astonishing.
(Tiles I played are in blue; my opponent's are in red.) Some things worth noting:
- I had the Z, Q, X, J, and K; opened with 104 points; and still won by less than fifty points. (We each got one blank, and she was ahead of me on S's three to one.)
- Only three of the triple word scores got used (one on the penultimate play of the game).
- That's two bingoes apiece--one on each of our first plays, one later in the game (with the help of a blank). Added bonus: a blank used as a Z.
Definitely the highest-net-scoring game I've yet played. And a pleasant way to turn around a streak whose lowlights included having the word CAZIQUE played on me as a bingo (Cazique, your nom was much cooler before it scored points against me)--a game I would have won if I had used my blank as an S to make CAZIQUES when playing on the triple, and not as a C to make CHIDE while playing it on another triple; and a game lost by two points in spite of having the two highest-scoring plays in the game (SIXTY on the triple for 47; MOSQUE, with the Q on a triple letter and the O attached to the front of ROTUND, for 44).
Perhaps I'm playing too much Scrabble. Well, at least it's an intellectual distraction.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-23 03:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-23 05:27 pm (UTC)And out of profressional curiositity
Date: 2005-04-23 03:13 pm (UTC)I'm wondering what rating system they use (your number looks far too small to be straight ELO, unless they seed it with a number smaller than the traditional 1500), but probably i should just go visit the site.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-23 03:19 pm (UTC)I don't really play scrabble and now I know why. What the hell is a xu?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-23 05:34 pm (UTC)One reason I'll never really be any good at Scrabble is that I don't have the patience to memorize the long lists of words, especially the two- and three-letter words. But for the high-scoring letters, it's useful to know what two-letter or three-letter words you can use them in, exactly so that you can do things like score the X twice, once for AXE and once for XU (all the more because the X is on a space that doubles its value).
Thus it's good to know offhand the words AX, EX, XI, OX, XU, JO, QAT, SUQ, QUA...and so forth. You can get a lot of mileage in this game out of Greek letters and foreign currency.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-23 04:03 pm (UTC)I actually knew that offhand. I think I've officially played too much Scrabble.
-- Trip
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-23 07:59 pm (UTC)I've gotta dig up the game (it was so awesome I wrote it all down) where I got two bingos, my dad got three, and I won by three points.